The Emperor's plans were far less definite. Between Croat and Magyar
he was unable to make up his mind. What he wanted most of all was
recruits for his Italian armies, seeing that Radetzky had been forced
back by the insurgents, and Venice, under the presidency of Daniel
Manin, had separated herself from Austria. When the Hungarians
declared themselves willing to help with their army in putting a stop
to the national movement in Italy, then the grateful Ferdinand
bestowed on them a mandate to put a similar stop to the "Croat
separatism"; he also suspended the Ban and declared him a traitor to
the Fatherland. This did not unduly depress Jella[vc]i['c], for in the
month of June he was solemnly installed by the Patriarch Rajacsich in
the cathedral of Zagreb. On this occasion the Mass was sung in old
Slavonic by the Bishop of Zengg, and on leaving the cathedral another
service was held in the Orthodox Church. "We desire by this solemn
manifestation," said the Croats, "to make it clear to all the world
that the brothers who belong to the Catholic and to the Orthodox
religions have one heart and one soul."
Meanwhile the citizens of Vienna had revolted, and the Court, although
the Magyars offered their hospitality, considered it prudent to take
shelter at Innsbruck. It was to that town that the Croats sent in June
a deputation which explained to the Emperor that Croatia had for
centuries and under various dynasties been an autonomous country, and
that the Magyars had not only, by their new laws, abolished this state
of things but had also abolished the link that joined them to his
empire, for they would henceforward have a personage, the Palatine, at
Buda-Pest wielding executive power at such times as the Emperor was
absent. The Croats showed the Emperor that he could thus not rule both
at Vienna and Buda-Pest except if he could be in both places
simultaneously; and Ferdinand acknowledged that this was correct and
that the Magyars had their foibles, but that they were on the point
of sending him recruits. "We hoped," said the Croats, "that in a new
world of liberty the Magyars would recognize the other races as their
equals. We have been disillusioned, as you will be. And in July when
Ferdinand announced, on the advice of Radetzky, that he would continue
the operations in the Italian provinces until the bitter end, it
became necessary for him to have these recruits. "We are prepared,"
said Kossuth, "to send a Hungarian army to Italy--in principle." But
while they were debating whether this would not expose them to the
Croats, they were called upon to put down a revolt in the Banat, where
the Roumanian population was quiescent and the Serbs had risen to
assert the rights of the non-Magyar peoples. There the Serbs advanced
victoriously, as did the Austrian troops in Italy. This caused the
Emperor to assume another tone when he addressed the Magyars. Let them
send a deputation to Vienna, where the Croats would be represented
also; and together they would come to an arrangement regulating their
relations to each other. The Hungarians were obstinate, chose Kossuth
to be their dictator and thus began the revolution.